This invention relates to a safety enclosure shield panel support system which is provided, for example, around a playing area such as an ice hockey rink or even the deck area of a single family residence. In particular, it relates to a support for shield panels.
Hitherto shield panel supports that are of wood, metal or aluminum have been used.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,970 (Holmsden et al), (FIG. 4, numbered item 34) teaches the construction of aluminium, upright shield panel support channels that are H-shaped in cross-section. The shield panel support further comprises an upper tubing section 100, also of aluminum, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 of the drawings of the patent. As well, the patent teaches that flexible and compressible gasketing or liners are installed into the supports. The gasketing serves to more firmly secure the shield panel side edges in the supports and to prevent the damage that would be occasioned by direct contact between the panels and metal. The gasketing is further intended to protect the panels from damage by absorbing some of the shock of a collision with the panel by an ice hockey player.
A drawback of the aluminum, metal and wood panel supports is that they impede visibility and present a significant obstruction, for example, to the viewing or televising of an ice hockey game. Consequently, various attempts have been made in the art to maximise visibility. For example, so called xe2x80x9cseamlessxe2x80x9d systems have been developed for ice hockey shield panel support systems to eliminate the shield panel supports and thereby to improve spectator visibility. However, whereas the seamless systems improve visibility, this improvement necessitated significant sacrifices in many other respects. For example, because of the elimination of the vertical shield panel supports, it became necessary to substitute the existing xc2xdxe2x80x3 acrylic shield panels of the solid support systems with tempered glass of a substantially greater thickness, namely ⅝xe2x80x3. However, although this substitution eliminated the need for the shield panel supports, it did not necessarily result in a much greater benefit, for acrylic is a superior shielding material in many respects with greater transparency characteristics than tempered glass.
Most significantly, the introduction of the seamless system requires substantial modifications to the supporting dasher board systems. To install a seamless system utilizing an existing dasher board system, is not always possible without extensive modification, and often requires replacement of the entire dasher board system. An example of such a seamless system is evident in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,706,625 (Vallance).
Apart from the significant financial outlay required to upgrade or convert existing shield support systems and dasher board systems to a seamless system, it is also readily apparent that the seamless systems are not necessarily xe2x80x9cseamlessxe2x80x9d as implied. Because of the impracticality of using a continuous panel of glass, for example, for an ice hockey rink shielding, the shielding is split into panels as shown in Vallance. Where the panels abut, there is of coarse a vertical xe2x80x9cseamxe2x80x9d or a xe2x80x9cgapxe2x80x9d between the panels. As well, top clips are employed in the seamless system to secure the abutting panel top edges in an attempt to provide greater stability, but which also results in an increase in the overall stiffness or rigidity of the seamless system.
The above summary is not intended to be an exhaustive list of the deficiencies in the existing art. Many additional deficiencies will be evident to a person skilled in the art. It is the object of the present invention to provide a shield panel support system that maximizes visibility but without the sacrifices referred to above.
Although the further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the summary of the invention and the description of the preferred embodiment of the invention below, the advantages of the instant invention are the following:
1. It presents a xe2x80x9cseamlessxe2x80x9d effect;
2. It permits the use of acrylic shield panels as opposed to tempered glass shield panels;
3. It eliminates the necessity to use the top edge clips of the seamless systems;
4. The use of gasketing or lining is rendered unnecessary;
5. It provides for the use of light weight shield panels; which decreases conversion and replacement time;
6. Retrofitting into any existing dasher board system is possible without the significant cost outlay to install a seamless system;
7. It eliminates, for example, the necessity of the solid, vertical supports at the gates of an ice hockey rink that has a xe2x80x9cseamlessxe2x80x9d system installed.
According to the invention there is provided a shield panel support for providing a secure mounting and a vertical side edge support for a shield panel, such as for use around an ice hockey rink and to which specific reference is made in the following description. The ice hockey shield panel support and the ice hockey shield panel is supported on, and removably attached to an ice hockey dasher board system. The ice hockey shield panel support comprises a transparent, vertical shield support pillar. The pillar may comprise a clear, polymer, vertical pillar.
According to one aspect of the invention, the pillar comprises an upper elevation, a lower elevation and a top and bottom end. The pillar may further comprise a longitudinal, intergral shaft and a vertical, stiffening fin. The shaft may comprise a vertical, spinal interface having two opposite side edges, two opposite sides and a vertical, stiffening fin laterally projecting from a first side of the two opposite sides. According to the invention, the two opposite edges of the spinal interface are respectively channelled to snugly receive a vertical, interfacing side edge of the panel. In a further embodiment of the invention, the two opposite side edges of the spinal interface of only the upper elevation of the pillar may be so channelled.
The second side of the two opposite sides of the shaft may define a convex and the laterally projecting, vertical stiffening fin may comprise a tangentially sloped fin having an acute angle at the top end of the pillar and a wide angle at the bottom end of the pillar. According to one aspect of the invention, the said fin may comprise, at the upper elevation of the pillar, the said sloped fin, terminating in a shoulder at a point on the shaft of the pillar between the upper and lower elevation of the pillar. The lower elevation of the pillar may comprise a laterally projecting, vertical fin spanning the pillar from the said shoulder of the sloped fin to the bottom end of the pillar; and which fin is disposed substantially in parallel with the shaft of the pillar.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the description of a preferred embodiment of the invention below.